numerically was much as it is today; they met on the second Tuesday of the month.
The big and most noteworthy event of that year was the change in name to the Sudbury Literary Institute and Museum.
In spite of recurring financial difficulties, which were with rare persistence overcome, the activities prospered. The Museum grew in size and range of content, the Library flourished, lectures continued to be popular and attract good audiences, and membership steadily, if unspectacularly, increased. More newspapers and by now many magazines were constantly being added to the Reading Room and, when read, were sold, indeed in some cases auctioned, to bring in a useful, if modest, revenue. For instance, at one point, the re-sale of newspapers and magazines were sold in advance at the rate of 2/- (10p) per week.
In March 1853, the Town Hall was booked for a stage play that the Sudbury Dramatic Society presented on behalf of the Institute’s funds. There is, alas, no further information about this in the Institute’s records. It would be interesting to know if there is more about it in those of the Dramatic Society.
It seems that the Institute, in its less austere nature of this period, was beginning to become involved in the various jollifications that had started to become a feature of town life. The Institute itself ran some evenings of ‘musical entertainment’ and, in one case at least, as much as £3.16.0d (£3.80p) was taken at the door, in addition, supposedly, to income from advance sale of tickets. A Mr. G. L. Andrews was responsible for this departure and was congratulated by the powers that were and promised any assistance. These musical evenings and the lectures appear regularly as monthly features, the lectures being so diverse now as to include cookery. The lecture hall was frequently let to outsiders and in fact for a period used by “the volunteers for drill”. The Recreation Room too brought in some revenue from being let and was, for instance, used as a vaccination station at a rent of £4.00 per annum.
It is regrettable that we lack more detailed information about the programmes of the entertainment being provided apart from scant references in Minutes from which we glean, for instance, one evening an entertainment was provided by the Pickwick Historic Club. In the case of Mr. Benn’s entertainment, no less than 110 double crown posters and 500 programmes were printed and this gives us some idea of the attendance and popularity of these evenings.
To give a fairly graphic picture of the cost of things then, or the costs the Club had to meet, it might be illuminating to reproduce this printer’s quotation from Lewis & Lewis:
200 Crown folio bills for lecture. 4/6 (22'/2p) per 200
400 Members tickets, coloured, 3 sorts, 8/- (40p) (or 2/- printed both sides. per 100).
150 Lecture tickets, 3 sorts. 3/- (15p)
200 Lecture programmes. 2/- (10p)
75 Lists of members for AGM. 2/6d (12'/2p)
2000 Labels for books. 5/- (25p)
300 Musical entertainment bills. 6/- (30p)
200 Programmes, large post 4-to, 4/- (20p) coloured.
4 Cheque receipt books for members, 10/- (50p) 200 leaves each.
As will have been gathered from the previous references to a lecture on cookery, in 1877, it was resolved “that ladies be admitted as Library members to the Institute on annual payment of 5/- (25p)
Since we have been talking of costs, it will make present members feel sick in their stomachs to know that they could have bought, as the Institute did, a ton of coal for 22/- (£1.10p). However, in 1878, things were going well and the Institute prospered, making a profit of £46.16.0d (£46.80p).
Much had been happening in the outside world during the 1860s, of course, while the absence of a Minute Book during the period limits . our knowledge of details about much of the Club’s work and progress. The Duke of Wellington had died in 1872, Charles Dickens had died, | a Lincoln had been assassinated and it was the start of the Disraeli- Gladstone saga in the House of Commons.
But some might say the real event was the build up of pressure in the Club to acquire a billiard table, although the first moves to this were frustrated. However, the setback was but temporary as we shall shortly see – and, as indeed, it was bound to be. Whether by way of consolation or compromise we do not know, but a Bagatelle table was introduced but apparently not greatly used.
The premises occupied by the Club in what was then Friars Street are those which form the lower part of Barclays Bank in what is now known as Market Hill and which to this day is distinguishable architecturally from the premises that were those of the Institute. In 1879 the adjoining premises, now Barclays Bank, were offered for sale to the Institute but the offer was refused, presumably on grounds of finance although this was not recorded.
Now, alas, a sad note. It was felt necessary to reprimand some members whose behaviour caused concern and consternation and the culprits were threatened with expulsion from the Institute. A Mr. Self in particular was singled out for using “bad language not in accordance with the usage of the Institute”. He was requested to watch his step. It seems he did. And, as indeed, members do now!
In 1880 further improvements and additions were made to the building at a cost of £100; the Recreation Room that had been in use for a year or two, in particular, was given attention.
The Sudbury Dramatic Society gave two performances on behalf of the Club but the nature of them is unknown although once again some information about them may lie in the archives of the Society.
Came the anticipation of a recent great argument. Smoking was banned in the Upper Reading Room; perhaps the early beginning of the debate that continues 100 years later. In this year, too, was born the Sudbury Institute Essay and Debating Society, which thrived for many years to come.
It must have been the subject of considerable discussion and concern, although no mention of it occurs in the Minutes, that the area suffered an earthquake in 1884 that shook the town and caused damage to St. Peter’s Church.
October 11 1889 was the big day – the date of a memorable meeting. The acquisition of a billiard table was sanctioned at a cost “not exceeding £40”. This was duly accomplished but at a cost of £43 net cash, guaranteed for seven years. The alternative, that for a sum of £45 payment could be spread over three years, was rejected. Members who had paid an annual subscription of one guinea (£1.05p) in advance were entitled to the free use of the table; players were to mark for themselves or be allowed to bring in a marker and the guinea subscribers were privileged to invite “a friend or friends to play a game on payment of 6d (2'/sp) for 50, 1/- (5p) for 100 and for four-handed games, 1/- (5p) short or 2/- (10p) long” (whatever that may mean: it is quoted directly from the Minutes of the meeting.) “Members having played 50 must after 7 p.m. in the event of others waiting to play give up the table.” Echoes of this or something similar were to sound down the years and remain as familiar to many snooker players! Smoking was forbidden and damage to the cloth carried a penalty of one guinea. The Librarian’s duties were extended to include “certain matters relating to the billiard room” and his salary was increased to £15 accordingly. The table and its accessories were insured for £50, the books for £200 and the building for £500, the latter two items at a premium of 17/6d (87'/2p). Soon a billiards handicap was arranged – entrance fee 1/- (5p); winner’s prize, a billiard cue not exceeding 20/- (£1) in value. The need for a prize was hotly contested but the opposers lost the day. Steve Davis would find the prize on the mean side.
In October 1887, ladies were admitted to the advantages of the Library and Institute for a maximum subscription of 4/- (20p). Thus the curious-flirtation and rejection throughout the Club’s history regarding the part, . if any, that ladies should play in the Club’s activities continued. Finally, they had to wait until 1983 before full membership was granted rather than Associate membership, although there was some outrage on the part of ladies that this would necessitate full membership fees but the stupidities of the Sex Discrimination Act left the Club with no choice but to abolish the membership category by means of which ladies paid a reduced subscription. But between these dates the subject remained a matter of frequent discussion with apparently one or two changes to the Rules. At one stage, the ladies for a brief period had a room of their own at the Club for meetings and repose but the running costs of £15 per annum after a capital outlay for equipment of £10.10.0d (£10.50p) proved too much for the finances considering the amount of use to which it was put. It also perhaps indicated that the ladies preferred the company of the gentlemen. Anyway, the Ladies Room had an existence of only three years.
Questions relating to the rules on the use of the billiard table persisted and matters of concern and complaint became strangely familiar over the years and will remain with us in various forms no doubt for time to come, but the popularity of billiards within the Institute was without doubt or question. When it came to suggestions for the acquisition of a second table in 1898, all manner of complications arose, largely to do with the structure of the building and, although the subject was, as we shall see, regularly raised and discussed, it was as regularly deferred over the ensuing 84 years.
The Bagatelle table was sold for £2.10.0d (£2.50p) to the Eastern Hotel and a new cloth for the billiard table had recently been purchased for £16 - or, rather, a second-hand cloth. But one of the more amusing episodes to those of us who have recently continued to argue over the installation of meters in the snooker room was the almost identical pros and cons being argued over some 80 years ago and which resulted in the purchase of an alarm clock at a cost of 2/6d (12'/2p) to be placed by the table to restrict possession of a table beyond a given time.
By 1897 and thereafter we come to learn a little about the musical entertainments that have been established some few years earlier. Records now exist, and in some cases even copies of programmes, that give an idea of the varied nature of the entertainment. For instance, apart from a Gilbert & Sullivan Evening, there were programmes of “animated pictures” (one showing Ranji and ‘Tom Hayward at the wicket), followed by songs and humorous duets by a Miss Maisie Riversdale, who seemed particularly popular judging by the several appearances she made, with various partners. There was, too, an Evening Concert: gems from comic operas with musical sketches. Prices of admission: 2/- (10p), 1/- (6p) and 6d (2p). The lighter side of the Institute’s activities were being revealed, therefore, in more directions than one and developing with some rapidity. One wonders whether the Rev, W. Wallis and his 12 Apostles of 1834 would have approved the behaviour of certain members which caused a notice to be posted forbidding members getting on the billiard table and deploring some instances of bad language in the billiard room. Members, then as now, learned to mutter under their breath! But apart from one occasion when the Institute was approached because of noise and nuisance, and one or two minor occurrences, the behaviour of members became as it remains to this day – exemplary!
A blow was struck for freedom, to the chagrin of today’s ‘do-gooders’ and some, but not all, medics, when the ban on smoking in the Reading Room was lifted.
Ping-pong was introduced at this time and tournaments were organised and were held to be successful: one such producing a profit of £1.8.8d (£1.44p) and matches were played with other teams from outside.
It is now apparent that recreational activities were beginning to dominate, for not only was a Bridge Club formed and tournaments held, but Whist Drives had arrived and one such took place at the Town Hall to earn the Club a profit of no less than £1.19.0d (£1 .95p), no mean contribution in those days to the Institute’s finances. Another aspect of recreation, organised not entirely for the Club’s benefit but the townspeople at large, was a Garden Fete in 1906, a great success by all.